I'm leaving in a couple of hours, heading south (first time in seven years that I spend the holidays in Southern Italy...) I'll be based in Salina, one of the Aeolian Islands (see: http://www.initaly.com/regions/sicily/aeolian.htm), and hopefully will tour the other islands as well.
One of these days I'm going to get to that part of the world. I've been wanting to go to Sicily for years. Have a great trip!
I tried to squeeze the amount of equipment to a minimum, but I'm still not sure if it'll be better to leave three primes at home bringing two zooms or viceversa (decisions, decisions...)
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I know it's a totally different scenario, ... I would have loved to bring a few bodies and lenses, but I only had room for my Leica CL/40mm Summicron C. I actually had fun being forced into the discipline of shooting many different types of shots (from bike races to architectural shots to skyline panoramas) with one body/lens. That being said, there were many situations that I did wish that I had something wider/longer/faster...
Yes, deciding on the equipment to carry is always difficult. It's so easy to carry too much, or too little. In 2004, I had two cameras, five lenses, tripod and supporting gear which turned into a nightmare. This year, I took only the DS body and six lenses ... DA14, A24, FA28-105, A50/1.4, F100-300, FA135 ... which worked out very well overall; my daily shooting bag rarely had more than three lenses in it at a time. Since I've returned home, I'm practicing carrying just one-two lenses alone for days at a time. The FA20-35 and F35-70 seem to be the ones most in my bag of late, with the Zenitar 16, DA14, and F50/1.7 occasionally joining one or the other of them.
The discipline of working with a single fast, prime focal length lens is always good for developing our eyes, however. It's great to get back to those basics and work the field. :-)
Godfrey
